Illegal workers in China

A source of cheap labor

In Asia demand for a new source of cheap labor that powered the cheap production in China, promotes migration and with it human trafficking. Vietnam has sent 107 thousand. Legal workers abroad last year, an increase of 20% from the previous year. China does not disclose official statistics on illegal foreign workers. According to some assumptions at least 30 thousand. Illegal workers are employed only in Dongguan – industrial city of 8 million. People and home to tens of thousands of export enterprises.

Wages in China have almost doubled over the past five years to about $ 450 per month. Some Vietnamese are paid about half that amount. Other Chinese workers earn much, but even then factory owners save on medical and retirement benefits. Workers in factories in Vietnam who make $ 250 per month, the possibility of a better salary in China is irresistible, with some receiving double and even triple what earn at home.

The large influx of illegal workers in China is a sign of an economy that has reached the threshold point. Chinese enterprises depend on abundant cheap local labor to feed the export sector in the country amounted to 2.3 trillion. dollars a year. But the number of people who flow into the work force shrinks, as the Chinese population is aging, while wages are increasing.

Factory owners are faced with a choice. They can outsource production from coastal regions, where wages are higher, or to inland provinces or outside the border to places like Vietnam and Cambodia. Or can pay traffickers to provide them with foreign workers who cost less, no guarantees of protection and can be easily dismissed.